The View: The Wild Reason Whoopi Goldberg Missed Post-July 4th Show

The Monday, July 6, episode of The View began with just four chairs at the desk, and when the hosts entered the stage, the audience was shocked to see Joy Behar among the panelists, as she normally isn’t there for the Monday episodes. Behar was joined by Alyssa Farah Griffin, Sunny Hostin, and last-minute guest host Michelle Buteau.

Yes, Whoopi Goldberg, Ana Navarro, and Sara Haines were all missing from the post-July 4th episode, and Behar quickly explained why. All three absences were not planned and were due to weather-related reasons and even a national disaster.

Navarro was stranded in Miami due to the weather, while Haines was dealing with “storm damage” from the wild storm that hit on the evening of July 5. Perhaps the most shocking absence was Goldberg’s, though, as Behar explained that she was stranded in Italy because Europe’s largest volcano, Mount Etna, erupted.

Goldberg filmed a video of herself to explain why she couldn’t be at the first show back from the hosts’ week-long July 4th vacation. “I am in Sicily, and Mount Etna, one of our active volcanoes here in Italy, decided to go off today,” she explained. “We have spent most of the day trying to get back to the United States. All of the airports are closed here.”

She promised that she will “be back as soon as I can,” and joked, “I know that we got all kinds of stories about our different vacations. Well, I think my story just takes the cake. A volcano ate my homework.”

Behar revealed that Buteau was tapped to fill in as a host at the last minute. She was meant to be a guest on the episode, but came in for the duration of the episode instead. It was not confirmed when the other three hosts will return.

The View, Weekdays, 11a/10c, ABC